August 29, 2009

NFL Changes Rules for Cowboys' Giant HDTV: Perhaps out of fear of angering Telemanjaro, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has made the following rule change: "If a ball in play strikes a video board, guide wire, sky cam, the greatest television ever made or any other object, the ball will be dead immediately, and the down will be replayed at the previous spot. If there is not an on-field ruling that the ball struck an object, the replay assistant is empowered to initiate a booth review, including if the event occurs prior to the two-minute warning. If, prior to the two-minute warning, no booth review is initiated by the replay assistant, a coach's challenge is permitted under the customary procedures for such a challenge. All hail Telemanjaro!" (Quote slightly edited.)

This rule was supposed to already be that if the ball hit the screen the down would be replayed. I quess since the Referees blew this one now the blame must be on Jerry Jones for putting the board 5 feet higher than NFL rules required. If he would have put it at 95 feet (10 feet higher than rules require) Tennessees punter would have still been aiming for it trying to hit it because it is so big.

I'll be interested in hearing a review of the game-watching experience with this monstrosity in front of you. Technologically, it looks amazing, but do you end up with 90% of the people in the stadium staring at the screen the whole time and not at the field, and is that necessarily a bad thing? Unless there is excellent crowd atmosphere, and seats as comfortable as my couch, I think I'd skip it and stay home.

Technically, if a QB had an arm strong enough to hit the board, and time was running out, couldn't a team exploit this rule to in effect call a time out? It'd be similar to a 1st down in college FB where they restart the clock when the balled is placed and the ref blows it live.

I'm just guessing here, but I think there are more than a few QBs who could do this. If it ever happens, especially more than once, I'm sure some clock runoff rule will be put in place if it was deemed intentional. Put receivers in the right spot in some Hail Mary situation, and it might be hard to figure whether it is intentional or not.

If Reg were around, he would have saved Jerry J. from being a fool, because the crew that designed that stadium would have had to take the Roby effect into account.

Here's a quote from Don Shula:

"On walkthroughs in domed stadiums the day before the game, he always would try to hit the top of the dome with a punt. He sometimes succeeded."

The roof, not the funky home entertainment center.

It may turn out that Romo dumped Jessica on the orders of Jerry J. Can't have the wrong person appearing on the big screen every minute or two being the de facto face of the Cowboys.

I'm not a Cowboy lover or hater, but it seems that some franchises have problems like TV screens, loopy girlfriends, and diagnosable owners; other clubs just seem to focus on getting guys signed, coached and conditioned, and then they go out and play football.

I'll be interested in hearing a review of the game-watching experience with this monstrosity in front of you.

I wrote up my experiences watching a soccer match there in the Telemanjaro link above. It doesn't detract from the experience of seeing the game. The people in the nosebleeds have two reasons to be there -- the game and the massive TV that sees everything. The people below the nosebleeds don't have a vantage point dominated by the TV.

What Jerry Jones has done here will be emulated by many other major stadiums to come. It gives the people who like watching sports at home on their huge HDTV one less reason not to come to games. It also gives owners more bad seats they can fill, because Telemanjaro makes bad seats good.

I'm not a Cowboy lover or hater, but it seems that some franchises have problems like TV screens, loopy girlfriends, and diagnosable owners ...

If you attended a game at the new stadium, you would not view the Cowboys as a troubled franchise. You'd view them as an incredibly fortunate one. They will be rolling in dough because of this thing.